"We're working on it." Nikolai found it difficult to hold her unblinking pale green gaze. "When we find Fabien, we'll find Mira. She's going to be okay. I promised you that, remember?"
When he thought she might just nod her head or glance away, Renata instead reached out to cup his face in her palm. "Thank you...for standing by me through all of this. I don't know how I will ever be able to repay you, Nikolai."
He brought his hand up to hers and placed a tender kiss in her palm. He was going to say something glib, one of the usual empty quips he used so often whenever things around him got too real with emotion or too raw with honesty. He had his methods down pat: Deflect with humor. Disarm with nonchalance. Cut and run like hell at the first inkling of his own vulnerability. But all those old, reliable weapons he'd honed to razor sharpness failed him now.
He stroked his thumb across the back of Renata's hand and let himself get lost in the verdant haven of her eyes.
"I'm not very good at this," he murmured. "I want to tell you something...shit, I'm gonna fuck it up probably, but I want you to know that I care about you. I do...a hell of a lot, Renata."
She stared at him, going so still and silent he wasn't even sure she was breathing.
"I care," he blurted out, frustrated at himself for fumbling through the words that he wanted to be perfect for her. "I don't know how it happened, or what it will even mean to you - if anything - but I need to say it anyway, because this is real. It's real, and I've never felt this way before. Not about anyone."
Her mouth softened into the smallest smile as he rambled clumsily, trying to find a way to tell her the depth of what was in his heart. Trying and failing miserably.
"What I'm trying to say is..." He shook his head, feeling like a blithering ass, but Renata's soft touch on his face soothed him. Her clear gaze brought him back, front and center, grounding him. "What I'm trying to tell you is, I'm falling for you...falling really hard. I wasn't looking for this to happen. I didn't think I'd ever truly want it, but...ah, Christ, Renata...when I look in your eyes, one word leaps into my mind every single time: Forever."
She exhaled slowly and her little smile spread into beaming joy.
Niko ran his hands over her soft skin, into her damp hair. "I'm in love with you, Renata. I know I'm not a poet - shit, not even close. I don't have all the fancy words I wish I could say to you...but I want you to know that what I'm feeling for you is real. I love you."
She laughed softly. "What makes you think I'd want poetry or fancy words? You just said exactly what I want to hear, Nikolai." She slid her hand around to the back of his neck and pulled him toward her for a long, passionate kiss. "I love you too," she whispered against his mouth. "I'm scared as hell to admit that, but it's true. I love you, Nikolai."
He swept his lips over hers and held her close, wishing he didn't ever have to let go. But dusk would be coming before long, and there was still one thing he needed to do. "You have to do something for me."
Renata nestled against him. "Anything."
"I don't know what's going to happen tonight, but I need to know that you'll be going into this as strong as you can be. I want you to take some more of my blood."
She rose out of his embrace and playfully arched a brow at him. "Are you sure you're not just trying to get into my pants again?"
Niko chuckled, a jolt of heat arrowing right into his groin at the very idea. "I wouldn't turn it down. But I'm serious...I want you to drink from me again now. Will you do that for me?"
"Yes. Of course."
He smoothed a dark tendril from her forehead. "There's one more thing, Renata. When we move in on Fabien tonight, it would kill me if anything...well, I just can't risk getting separated from you. I'm gonna need to know that you're all right at all times, or my focus is going to be for shit. I need to have a link to you. I know how you felt about Yakut using your blood as a tether on you, and I promise you that's not what I - "
"Yes, Nikolai," she said, interrupting him with a gentle stroke of her fingers over his mouth. "Yes...you can drink from me." His answering curse was low with relief. "It's forever," he reminded her firmly. "You need to understand that. Like the blood bond you have to me now, if I drink from you, we can't ever undo it."
"I do understand," she said, no hesitation at all. She moved closer to him and kissed him, long and deep. "I understand the bond would be forever...and I'm still saying yes."
Niko groaned, fire lighting in his veins. His fangs stretched, and his sex rose to instant attention, all of him eager to claim Renata as his own. He kissed her, his heart slamming hard against his rib cage when she slipped her tongue past his lips to toy with the sharp points of his fangs.
"I want you naked for this," he said, unable to curb the edge of command that was leaking into his voice. He was partly human, but there was another part of him - a wilder part - that knew less patience than he would like.
Niko watched with blazing amber eyes as Renata quickly obeyed him, stripping out of her clothes and lying back on the shaded grass floor of the shelter, thighs falling open, presenting herself to him without a speck of inhibition. "Oh, yeah," Niko growled. "That's much better."
He was rampant with need for her. Tearing off his own clothes and tossing them aside, he climbed up over her hips and straddled her. His cock thrust outward, kicking as she petted it with teasing, feather-light strokes. He held her smoldering gaze as he brought his wrist up to his mouth and bit into his flesh.
"Let me taste you again," she said, rising up to meet his vein as he carried the bleeding punctures to her mouth. Crimson drops splashed down onto her breasts, so vivid against her creamy skin. She moaned, closing her eyes as she suckled him, savored him.
Niko watched her drink, watched her body begin to writhe with arousal. With his free hand, he caressed her, unable to resist running his fingers through the blood that had spilled on her. The sight of his blood marking her skin was as erotic as anything he'd ever seen. His touch ventured farther down, into the molten core of her that was so ready for him. Her thighs clamped around his wrist, holding him against her as the first orgasm rocketed through her.
Nikolai growled with pure male adoration as he fed his female from his body and felt hers clamoring to have him. He let her drink for several long minutes, until her body was on fire beneath him again.
He too was on fire.
Gently he took his wrist from her mouth and sealed the punctures closed with a sweep of his tongue. Renata was still arching and writhing, still moaning for him, as he braced himself over her and plunged home. She cried out as he filled her, her fingernails scoring his shoulders in delicious pain.>This part of her life was over.